Student Internships | What I Did, Applying, General Tips

I did a 3-month internship at a law firm this summer, and these are the most important things I gathered. I will list them down if you are planning on doing one or if you just want to know what it is like.

Internship - The position of a student or trainee who works in an organization, sometimes without pay, in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification. 

Internships are very important from a career point of view. It builds your CV, enhances your practical knowledge and shows your future employer that you have prior experience of working in a professional setting.

It is important to know that not every internship will pay you, as Google said, sometimes without pay. The main purpose of doing internships is to gain experience, along with make connections. No matter what course you are doing, having connections with people working in the same professional field you're aiming to work in is extremely important. They can be a future option to contact if you're looking for jobs. 

Now, let's talk about how to apply for internships.

1.   University.  Many universities have a 'summer internship programme' where they list down all the internships available from companies or firms that they have partnerships with.  That's the first place you should look at because there is a possibility that your university only recognizes certain places where you intern. Contact your university, and find out if they have such a scheme.

2.   Google.  Three steps; go on Google. Type in 'internships in *city name*'. Browse. Honestly, that's how I started. Search, look up companies, look up internship offers, qualifications, requirements, and location, and send your CV in. (I will make a separate post about how to make CVs, what to include, templates, etc., in a few days.) 

3.   Non-stop emails.   This is the second thing I did. I wanted to do a legal internship specifically, and my Google research wasn't very fruitful in finding those. So this is how I proceeded:

• Searched up law firms
• Found their contact email
• Emailed my CV to them.

I emailed any and every law firm I found online. Regardless of whether they announced that they had a summer internship offer or not, I did so. I probably emailed around 25-30 firms. Some emailed back saying they didn't have an internship offer, some said they did, and some didn't email back. It's fine. It does not matter. Send your CV to any place you'd be interested in interning.

After the application process is done, you get an offer letter, you get your start date, they ask you for documents, and you're ready for your internship. 

So let's talk about some general things you should keep in mind. 

1.   Experience > Money.   I had offers for paid and unpaid internships, but I chose an unpaid one. Why? Because the experience and exposure would be far more than the other firms. Unless you don't have university funds for internships (some universities offer that) and are in a position where you have to earn money, my advice is to choose a place which would provide you with more experience rather than a place that might offer a stipend but not a lot of knowledge. 

A good way of estimating that would be by judging the size of the company/firm. Smaller organizations tend to have more work opportunities for interns as their workforce is limited. That way, they assign more tasks to interns. On the other hand, you could be straightforward and ask them to give you a summary of the tasks that are likely to be assigned to you during the course of your internship. 

2.   Don't be afraid to ask questions.   If you ask reasonable questions, you are more likely to give the impression that you take the internship seriously and are willing to learn. Keyword, *reasonable*. In case of any confusion on how to do a particular task, politely ask the person you report to if they could spare some time clarifying your doubts. That is a million times better than doing the task wrong and submitting it. 

3.   Familiarize yourself with the work product/environment.   Every company has their own methods of work and their own environment. It is better to quickly adapt to it and work accordingly. In some organizations, you can address others on a first-name basis; some require you to call them by Mr./Ms. Not only that, the work product and methodology of doing tasks also differ. For example, the firm I interned at required documents to be written in the font Calibri, font size 13, indentation at 0.3, and paragraph spacing at 12pts. The faster you incorporate this, the better your performance will be. 

4.   Dress code.   Dress. According. To. The. Dress. Code. Look professional. Look clean.

5.   Keep the team informed.   Coming in late? Inform them. Taking a day off? Inform them. Leaving early? Inform them. Informing your superiors is very important in a professional setting, even if you're an intern. 

6.   Meet and Greet.   Greet everyone, just do it. You will showcase a positive attitude and create professional relationships. 

So yeah, these are some general tips that will help you before you start an internship. Of course, there's a lot more that you will learn (like I am) as time goes by!